Editor’s Note: This is the fifth of our series of articles looking at the Power Conferences in College Football. Each day one of our college football writers will pick a conference winner, and make a case as to why that team has what it takes to win the new College Football Playoff and become 2014 National Champions. Once we are done, look for our wrap up.
Back in January, the Florida State Seminoles hoisted the very last sparkling Waterford crystal BCS Championship trophy, celebrating a 34-31 victory over the Auburn Tigers. In a press conference at the team hotel the next morning, head coach Jimbo Fisher had already set his sights on the new College Football Playoffs.
“It’s time for another one,” said Fisher.
Repeat championships are a daunting accomplishment, but early Vegas predictions have the odds of the Seminoles winning the playoff at 5 to 1. Experts have quite a few reasons to peg Fisher’s boys as the team to beat.
Although Florida State lost 10 starters from the 2013 championship team—7 to the NFL draft—historically, youth has not hedged the Seminole’s success in the Fisher era. In fact, heading into the 2013 season, FSU had surrendered 11 of its top-tier players to the NFL Draft, and still was able make quick work of almost every opponent on the schedule. To put that into perspective, LSU and Alabama each lost players 9 players to the draft, and couldn’t win their division—much less their conference.
Jameis Winston is returning, as are 14 other important contenders from last year’s championship team, including Karlos Williams, Rashad Greene, Jesus Wilson, Scooter Haggins, Kermit Whitfield, and Nick O’Leary. With the Noles’ large margin of victory in almost every game of the 2013 season, second and even third-string players got ample playing time, so many of the underclassmen are prepared to step up and finally get their shot at football glory.
In 2013, Florida State’s biggest obstacle was the weakness of their own schedule. The Seminoles hop-scotched their way into the BCS Championship game with a series of lucky draws: a loss by Stanford to Utah, a Stanford win over Oregon, even an Alabama loss to Auburn to open up the #1 spot.
In the absence of the reviled BCS rankings system, FSU won’t need Lady Luck to stay on top of the polls. With a stronger schedule that includes the likes of Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, and Louisville (in addition to the traditional matchups against Clemson, Miami and Florida), the Seminoles will simply need to win out in order to impress the playoff committee. A four-team playoff also means there’s slightly more room for error, so one slip up would not necessarily derail the Noles’ championship train.
However, the Seminoles will face a looming enemy who will carry far more thunder and threat than Clemson or Miami could possibly muster: the comfortable sleepiness of complacency.
Complacency is a common problem for defending national championship teams. Even Nick Saban, who practically holds a doctorate in discipline and focus, blamed complacency for Alabama’s public unraveling at the end of the 2013 season. Saban told reporters at the annual Team Focus charity event that his team was “a little complacent, a little satisfied. Where we always prided ourselves in hard work, all the sudden we resented it.”
Jameis Winston and his tribe will face the same challenges which the Crimson Tide faced throughout summer workouts—and the execution of every single win in the regular season. The team motto for the 2014 season is “Dallas to Dallas”, indicative of their goal to win every game from the opener against Oklahoma State in AT&T Stadium, to the championship game in the same venue.
Coaches often use negativity to stoke a fire in an otherwise-subdued team. If the Seminoles are to prevail again, Jimbo Fisher will have to find a way to harness criticism’s of Jameis, the media’s distaste for the diluted ACC lineup in their schedule, and bait his team with doubt and naysayers. Hatred produces hunger, and the Seminoles will need plenty of hunger to stave off the numbing power of complacency.
If Florida State can overcome the obstacles of contentment and entitlement, they’re fully equipped to make a triumphant introduction to the new College Football Playoffs. With a ridiculously talented team, with a more experienced quarterback phenom who is anxious to repeat, and a new playoff system designed to recognize and reward truly great teams, the Noles are poised to hand Florida State its fourth title.
As for the Seminoles’ star player and the leader of team, Jimbo was stunned with Winston’s performance after returning from the College Baseball World Series:
“His ability to retain information and process it and get it out is ridiculous,” Fisher said. “Anybody,” Fisher said. “I mean, he’s at an elite level that way. To me, it’s the secret to him. He said he’d been throwing two or three days a week, but he ain’t been with his guys. … A couple of guys had a few mistakes at the end, just a hair tired, and all of a sudden, you could just feel his energy. The last four plays were: Bam! Bam! Bam!”
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